Monday, 2 December 2013

You
may remember the words of the old rock and roll song from the early 1970s:

Clowns to the
left of me, jokers to the right,

Here I am, stuck in the
middle with you.

In
many ways, this is the experience of mainstream churches in twenty-thirteen.

Clowns to the
left of us, jokers to the right,

Here we are, stuck in the
middle ...

On
one side, we find religious communities – Christian or otherwise - that are
sure that their particular spin on religious faith is right, and that every one
else’s particular spin on religious faith is wrong.

On
another side, we find some very influential voices in our society who rubbish
religion of all sorts, who lampoon religion of all sorts.They are those who tell us that religion (and
Christianity, in particular) is the source of all humanity’s woes; as if Hitler
was all that religious; or as if Stalin was all that religious; or Pol Pot.

If
the one lot we call religious fundamentalists, the other lot we can call secular
fundamentalists.

If
the one lot says “All religious faiths are wrong and stupid, except mine”; the
other lot says “All religious faiths are wrong and stupid ... full stop.”

Clowns to the
left of us, jokers to the right,

Here we are, stuck in the
middle ...

It
is our spiritual vocation to inhabit “the messy middle” (1), without the cock-sure
certainties of those who proclaim “All religious faiths are wrong and stupid,
except mine”, and without the cock-sure certainties of those who proclaim “All
religious faiths are wrong and stupid ... full stop.”

It
is our task to be passionately affirmative about our way of being people of
faith, without being negative about other people’s ways of being people of
faith (and without being negative about those who live their lives well without
being people of any sort of religious faith).

It’s
not an easy task.Those of us whom God
calls to inhabit the “messy middle” need to cope with the grey areas of less
theological, ethical, or moral certainty.

Clowns to the
left of us, jokers to the right,

Here we are, stuck in the
middle ...

Our
lessons for this Second Sunday of Advent give us some clues for the task ahead
of us.

In
our gospel lesson, we see the figure of John the Baptist.John was a person with a highly austere lifestyle.(Today, we could say that John has scored the
austerity trifecta: vegetarian, teetotal, and celibate.)He also had an uncompromising message of God’s requirements for those
who would enter his Kingdom.

Jesus
never embraced the austerity of John’s lifestyle.Jesus proclaimed a much more inclusive vision
of God’s kingdom than did John.But
Jesus still spoke of John the Baptist with great respect.

The
average member of the people of God is not called by God to embrace all the
austerities of John the Baptist.But, in
every generation, including our own, the people of God need a few of the direct
“in-your-face” prophetic types such as John.This is so, whether they exist on the “left” or the “right” of the
theological spectrum.They help keep the
rest of us on our theological toes; whether they call us to a greater boldness
in sharing our faith or to a greater boldness in working for social
justice.However irritating they may be
at times, we need our John-the-Baptist-types.

But
the people of God also need those who challenge the “in-your-face”
John-the-Baptist types to ease up, to lighten up, to seek a more humane balance
in their faith.

In
our lesson from Romans, we see something very different from John the
Baptist.On one hand, Paul wrote as someone
who loved his own tradition deeply:“For
whatever was written in former days was written for our encouragement, so that
by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have
hope.”

On
the other hand, though, Paul approached his tradition with the hand of one who
knows that the tradition needs to be broadened.He knew that the Gentiles have been included within the people of God in
the whole Christ event.He celebrated
this inclusion, and he highlighted those parts of his tradition that supported
this inclusion.(And he laid aside those
parts of his tradition that did not.)

Paul
was being a very contemporary person of faith here.Theologically, Paul showed himself as an
inhabitant of the “messy middle”, as one who loved his tradition passionately
but who saw the task of inclusion as an urgent priority.

And people of faith today
need to be about this same task:

·emphasising those aspects of our faith traditions that are life-giving;

·laying aside those aspects of our faith traditions that are not
life-giving;

·being willing to argue the point robustly as to which aspects of our
traditions are life-giving or not;

·being willing to stand corrected, at times.

It’s
not an easy task inhabiting the “messy middle”

Clowns to the
left of us, jokers to the right,

Here we are, stuck in the
middle ...

Isaiah’s
vision in our first lesson proclaims to us that all these difficulties are well
worth it.Last week’s lesson had one of
Isaiah’s great visual images of swords being hammered into ploughshares; spears
being bent into pruning-hooks; weapons of death becoming tools for life.

Today
we have another of Isaiah’s great word pictures.The profound peace of God extends into the
animal kingdom, so that all the creatures of the earth shall lie down together
in peace and harmony.

The wolf shall
live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and
the lion and the fatling together,

and a little
child shall lead them.

In
the early 19th century, an American Quaker artist named Edward Hicks
painted a series of many paintings on this passage.He gave the series the name “The Peaceable
Kingdom”.The paintings were in a naive,
almost primitive style, with the animals having a human quality to their faces,
looking rather philosophical – as if they were pondering the mysteries of life
at a Quaker meeting.The paintings
capture the radical nature of Isaiah’s vision.

And it is this vision of
wholeness that enables us to keep on struggling here in the “messy middle”:

·Despite those who say “All religious faiths are wrong and stupid ...
full stop”; and who call us to abandon all faith; we know there’s something
much, much more to life.

·Despite those who say “All religious faiths are wrong and stupid,
except mine”, and who call us to abandon our style of faith for a more
exclusive approach to the life of faith; we know there’s something much, much
more to God.

We
still hear this vision of God’s peace breaking out in God’s world.With the vision, we also have God’s call to
keep struggling as God’s people in the “messy middle”.

It’s
not an easy task.Those of us whom God
calls to inhabit the “messy middle” need to cope with the grey areas of less
theological, ethical, or moral certainty.In the midst of these grey areas, we can discover the good news of God’s
inclusive love for the whole creation.

Clowns to the
left of us, jokers to the right,

Here we are, stuck in the
middle ... with God.

***

(1) The notion of the "Messy Middle" to describe those of us committed to a mainstream, ecumenical faith is not original to me. In particular, Avril Hannah-Jones is one person who has worked with this idea recently.

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About Me

I grew up in the United States and have lived in Australia since 1980. I'm a retired (recycled?) minister in the Uniting Church in Australia. At various times, I've been a parish minister, ecumenical staffer, and hospital chaplain. Some of my interests include theology, liturgy, ecumenism, interfaith relations, history, politics, the arts, humour, and Christmas in popular culture. (I did my doctorate on Advent and Christmas as a "season of opportunity" for churches to relate to their communities.)